to these anonymous accusations against the tutors of the prince, had they not been seconded by the Duke of Newcastle, and his brother, Harry Pelham, who had long possessed an ascendancy over the mind of the sovereign. The king became alarmed, but instead of taking the course which the accusers expected, and turning the persons out of their employment, he ordered a committee to examine into the truth of the story. The commissioners discharged their trust with fidelity, and the only shadow of proof that appeared to warrant the complaint, was the fact that the young prince, on seeing Echard's History of the Revolution in the hand of a domestic, requested the loan of it, which of course was granted.

PRINCE GEORGE AT SEVENTEEN.

The Princess of Wales, his mother, communicated to a friend the following character of the young prince at the age of seventeen. The passage is in Doddington's Diary. She said, that "he was shy and backward; not a wild dissipated boy, but good-natured and cheerful, with a serious cast upon the whole; that those about him knew him no more than if they had never seen him. That he was not quick; but with those he was acquainted with, applicable and intelligent. His education had given her much pain. His book-learning she was no judge of, though supposed it small or useless; but she hoped he might have been instructed in the general understanding of things." He was brought up in great privacy, as far as regarded a familiar acquaintance with the prevailing manners

of the young nobility; and the prejudices which George II. entertained against the Princess Dowager, effectually excluded his grandson from the splendours and allurements of a court."

EARL OF BUTE.

Those who are accustomed to trace the most important events to causes the most trivial, will not be surprised to learn, that the first success of Lord Bute, and, consequently, all the good or evil which his great power occasioned, was owing to the circumstance of an apothecary, in Lime Street, keeping a carriage. His lordship was living in a very domestic and retired manner at Richmond; attending only to the education of his children, and not even allowing himself the indulgence of a carriage. Mr. M., an apothecary, whose country house was near that of Lord Bute, kept a chariot, and one day invited his lordship to take a place in it, to go to Moulsey Hurst, where there was to be a great cricket match, under the auspices of Frederic Prince of Wales, father of George III. The offer was accepted; and they had not been long on the ground, when it began to rain. To amuse the prince during this cessation of the cricket, a rubber of whist was proposed; but only three persons could be found, of sufficient rank to entitle them to the honour; at last some one recollected that he had seen a nobleman in Mr. M.'s chariot. Lord Bute was accordingly invited to be of the party, where he so pleased the prince (who had never seen him before), that he invited him to Kew; an invitation which the Scotch lord did not hesitate in accepting. From

that time Lord Bute became a great favourite of the prince; and in 1737, he was appointed one of the

lords of his bed-chamber.

ALLEN, EARL BATHURST.

This nobleman was appointed treasurer to the prince in 1757, and continued on the list of privy counsellors at his accession to the throne; but on account of his great age, being then upwards of seventy, he chose to enjoy otium cum dignitate. Lord Bathurst's integrity gained him the esteem even of his opponents; and his humanity and benevolence, the affection of all who knew him more intimately. He added to his public virtues, all the good breeding, politeness, and elegance, of social intercourse. Swift, Prior, Rowe, Addison, Pope, Arbuthnot, Gay, Congreve, in short, all the men of genius of his time, cultivated his friendship, and were proud of his correspond

ence.

Pope, in his Epistle to him on the Use of Riches, thus addresses him :

"The sense to value riches, with the art T' enjoy them, and the virtue to impart ; To balance fortune by a just expense, Join with economy magnificence; With splendour charity, with plenty health; O teach us, Bathurst, yet unspoiled by wealth, That secret rare between the extremes to move, Of mad good nature, and of mean self love!" Sterne, in his Letters to Eliza, also speaks of him in the following terms:

"This nobleman," says he, "is an old friend of

mine; he was always the protector of men of wit and genius; and has had those of the last century always at his table. The manner in which his notice began of me, was singular, as it was polite. He came up to me one day, as I was at the Princess of Wales' court; I want to know you, Mr. Sterne, but it is fit you should know also who it is that wishes this pleasure. You have heard (continued he) of an old Lord Bathurst, of whom your Popes and Swifts have sung and spoken so much. I have lived my life with geniuses of that cast, but have survived them; and despairing of ever finding their equals, it is some years since I have closed my accounts, and shut up my books, with thoughts of never opening them again; but you have kindled a desire in me of opening them once more before I die, which I now do--so come home, and dine with me.' This nobleman, I say, is a prodigy; for, at eighty-five, he has all the wit and promptness of a man of thirty; a disposition to please and to be pleased, and a power to please others beyond whatever I knew; added to which, he is a man of learning, courtesy, and feeling."

His lordship preserved his natural cheerfulness and vivacity to the very last. To within a month of his death, which happened on the 16th of September, 1775, at the age of ninety-one, he constantly rode out on horseback, two hours before dinner; and constantly drank his bottle of claret or madeira after dinner. He used to repeat often, with a smile, that Dr. Cheyne had assured him, fifty years before, that he would not live seven years longer, unless he abridged himself of his wine. About two years before his death, he invited several of his friends to spend a few cheer

ful days with him at his seat at Cirencester; and being one evening very loth to part with them, his son, afterwards Lord Chancellor Bathurst, objected to their sitting up any longer, adding, that health and long life were best secured by regularity. He suffered him to retire; but as soon as he was gone, the cheerful father said, 16 Come, my good friends, since the old gentleman is gone to bed, I think we may venture to crack another bottle."

COMING OF AGE.

The City of London presented, on this occasion, an address to the Princess of Wales, in which they warmly congratulated her on "the happiness of seeing her illustrious son, the Prince of Wales, arrived at the age of twenty-one years, endowed with every noble quality which maternal fondness could hope, or a free people wish, in the heir-apparent to the crown." Her royal highness replied, that as her " utmost ambition had ever been to see her son answer the expectations of his country; if she had succeeded in that, all her wishes were completed."

PROJECT OF MARRIAGE.

George the Second, some years before his death, projected an union between the prince, and a niece of the King of Prussia. This proposition was so gratifying to Frederic, that he embraced it with eagerness, and urged the accomplishment of it, by repeated applications to the king, and the Princess Dowager of Wales; but she objected to the marriage, because